:01:00
Thelma has worked for over 20 years
as Scorsese's editor,
:01:03
so she'll be bringing
her practised eye to bear
:01:06
on some sequences from a film
that's now nearly 70 years old.
:01:10
We're also delighted to have
as a guest Daniel Day-Lewis,
:01:13
who'll be reading from
Michael Powell's remarkable book
:01:17
originally called
200,000 Feet On Foula,
:01:20
which was published to coincide
with the film's release in 1938.
:01:27
Powell had the idea for the film
as far back as 1930,
:01:30
when he read about
the final evacuation
:01:33
of the Hebridean island of St Kilda,
:01:34
off the northwest of Scotland.
:01:37
Now, on a different island,
:01:40
Foula, up in the Shetlands,
:01:41
he was about to bring it to life.
:01:45
Michael Powell played
the visiting yachtsman himself,
:01:48
along with his future wife,
Frankie Reidy.
:01:51
And their yacht was borrowed
:01:53
from the actual owner of the island,
Alastair Holborn.
:01:57
He decided that they should
play these parts
:01:59
to keep the budget down and not
to have any more superfluous people
:02:04
on what would be
a difficult location shoot.
:02:07
It was particularly difficult
because they weren't able to shoot
:02:11
on the original island of St Kilda.
:02:13
The owner of St Kilda had decided
it was going to be a bird sanctuary,
:02:18
so he didn't want a film crew
invading the island.
:02:24
(Daniel Day-Lewis as Michael Powell)
All this was my doing.
:02:26
From Elstree to Foula,
over 800 miles of land and sea,
:02:30
many people's lives
were being transformed
:02:33
because seven years ago
I had read a paragraph
:02:36
in a Sunday newspaper.
:02:38
A little interest item stuck
in my head and became a story.
:02:42
Because of that idea,
24 intelligent men,
:02:44
who had never been
very far away from a pavement,
:02:47
were going to be dropped down
on an extremely isolated island,
:02:51
there to live and work
:02:53
for five months.
:02:55
(Dialogue) Your book was right
when it was published, Mr Graham.
:02:58
But you were wrong when you said
nothing changes on these islands.